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University of Pennsylvania president Larry Jameson, who took on an interim role during an institutional crisis in 2023, announced Friday that he will be stepping down next summer.
Penn removed the interim label from his position in 2025, but Jameson now says he will depart as scheduled when his contract ends next June.
He assumed leadership at a time when Penn was under intense scrutiny from lawmakers regarding its handling of antisemitism concerns on campus. He succeeded former president Liz Magill, who faced harsh criticism from lawmakers during a congressional hearing on antisemitism. Jameson was named interim after she resigned amid the controversy.
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In a news release, he stated that it is “the right time” for Penn to proceed with new leadership.
“When I accepted the honor of leading Penn, my goal was to help restore stability during unanticipated leadership transitions, refocus our community on Penn’s mission, and strengthen Penn for the future during a challenging time for higher education,” Jameson wrote. “With your partnership, resilience, and dedication, we have accomplished these objectives and much more. Penn has tremendous momentum and is exceptionally well positioned for the future.”
Jameson’s time in office was partly defined by a dispute with the federal government over Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who competed on the women’s swimming and diving team from 2021 to 2022. Last summer, after the Trump administration froze federal research funding for Penn, the university agreed to apologize to cisgender female competitors who lost to Thomas, along with other concessions. Despite the agreement, Jameson maintained that Penn was fully compliant with both Title IX and NCAA guidelines but acknowledged that “some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules.”
The Trump administration subsequently restored Penn’s federal research funding.
Ramanan Raghavendran, chair of Penn’s Board of Trustees, wrote in an email to the campus community that the university will initiate a presidential search to identify Jameson’s successor this fall.
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